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A Change to Climate as We Know It Student Name

Professor's Name Class/Section

Date

Proposal: The past several decades have shown a pattern of drastic changes to the Earth’s

climate. According to research conducted by Stanford University, over the next century climate

is predicted to change 10 times faster than any shift the earth has seen in the last 65 million

years. This exhibition will bring attention to the impact humans have on the environment, using

visual elements in the form of sculptures composed of materials taken straight from the

environment, to display how human actions result in the destruction of climate in the present

time. The five artists included in the exhibit A Change to Climate as We Know It will be Tan Zi Xi,

Maya Lin, Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, and Mary Mattingly. All of these artists have created

artworks that bring awareness to the role humans play in the issue of climate change.

Annotated Bibliography:

Betts, Alan K. "Climate change and society." AIMS Geosciences 7, no. 2 (2021): 194+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed June 3, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A683228708/AONE?u=tall85761&sid=bookmark-AONE &xid=f54786fc.

• Alan Betts writes about factors of climate change, including the issue of rising sea levels

due to global warming, pollution, and deforestation. The author also connects these problems to human actions, such as the increase in global temperature due to greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere that are released by the burning of fossil fuels.

• This source describes the issue of ocean pollution caused by human waste, the inspiration behind Tan Zi Xi’s installation Plastic Ocean, and the continued deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, connecting to the meaning of Ai Weiwei’s Pequi Tree. This source will be helpful in explaining the messages each artist wishes to convey with their artworks.

Hanning, Kelly. “Tan Zi Xi, Yodogawa Technique, and Cai Lun: Exploring Paper, Pollution, and Environmental Advocacy.” Art Education (Reston) 73, no. 6 (2020): 48–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2020.1785796.

• Kelly Hanning uses this article as an outlet to discuss artists who work in the theme of environmental advocacy. This includes the artist Tan Zi Xi and her background, experience, and motivation for creating art under this theme.

• Tan Zi Xi’s installation Plastic Oceans is included in this source and will be one of the art pieces featured in this exhibition. This source is important to the exhibit as it goes into detail about the meaning of this piece highlighting Tan Zi Xi’s message of allowing the audience to reflect on their own consumption habits and the role their waste plays in the environment.

Helfand, Zach. 2021. “Ghost Forest.” New Yorker 97 (12): 18–19. https://search-ebscohost- com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=150196648&site=ehost-live.

• This article describes one of Maya Lin’s latest art exhibits, Ghost Forest, and the process to create the piece.

• The meaning behind Ghost Forest ties into the thesis of this exhibit as Lin describes how she created it as a way for people to be “aware of things that are literally disappearing right before our eyes,” encouraging human involvement in reversing the effects of climate change. This source is useful because it includes direct quotes from Maya Lin.

Hornby, Louise. “Appropriating the Weather: Olafur Eliasson and Climate Control.” Environmental Humanities 9, no. 1 (2017): 60–83. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3829136.

• Louise Hornby uses this article to delve into the motivations artist Olafur Eliasson has behind his artwork. Hornby focuses on the direct call for action in Ice Watch, Elliason’s interactive artwork that allows many citizens to view and interact with pieces of glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet.

• This article is useful because it describes important details of the installation that makes it a good fit for this exhibition, such as its direct call for people to take action. This source will be used in the sections of the essay describing Elliason’s work.

Klosterwill, Kevan. “On Displacement: Revealing Hidden Ways of Being through Site-Specific Art.” Environmental Humanities 11, no. 2 (2019): 324–50. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-7754490.

• In this article, Kevan Klosterwill describes the floating structure, Swale, created by artist Mary Mattingly and located in the Bronx, New York. This platform holds a garden of fruits and vegetables available to the public. The main message of Swale according to Mattingly is for people to reconsider the current food system. Through this artwork Mattingly is showing the public that it is possible to have a source of food that is sustainable, and without pesticide application.

• This source explains the message of Swale in terms of how human actions have the potential to help improve the agriculture system and preserve the environment. It will be used in the essay to describe artist Mary Mattingly’s impactful interactive artwork.

Mendes, Ana Cristina, and Ai Weiwei. “The World as a Readymade: a Conversation with Ai

Weiwei.” Transnational Screens ahead-of-print, no. ahead-of-print (n.d.): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2022.2061143.

• This article serves to be an introduction to the artist Ai Weiwei, including statements directly from Weiwei sourced from his 2021 documentary Tree. The source describes the documentary that is based around the sculpture Pequi Tree, which will be featured in this exhibit. The excerpts from the documentary include Weiwei describing the difficulties that occurred when gathering the materials to build the tree and the process of creating it.

• This source will be used to contextualize Weiwei’s Pequi Tree within the proposed exhibition in the sections introducing the exhibition and covering Weiwei’s work in specific. This sculpture will be placed in the exhibit to emphasize the concept of human involvement in climate change.